Traditional gardening requires the use of hand tools such as a garden hoe to make the planting row and to cover the plant seeds. Individual seeds are generally placed by hand into the planting row for accurate placement and spacing for optimal growing conditions. This requires the gardener to continuously bend over to place each individual seed in the planting row causing fatigue and strain to the gardener's muscles.
As fatigue or pain intensifies, the gardener gradually assumes a more upright posture, reducing the accuracy of seed placement and spacing thereby compromising growing conditions. As a result, it is desirable to have a garden tool that eliminates the gardener's need to bend over for accurate placement and planting of seeds.
Furthermore, it would be advantageous to the gardener for the garden tool to combine several functions so that it may be used to dig the planting row and plant, space, and cover the seeds to eliminate the need to use separate tools during the planting process.
Information relevant to attempts to address these problems can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,497,713; 2,767,820; 4,218,981; 1,439,601; 6,662,736; 6,279,496; 5,471,939; 2,865,315; 6,289,828; 5,493,977; 3,097,759; 419,928; 1,287,516; and 1,994,196; the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference. However, each one of these references suffers from one or more of the following disadvantages: fails to combine the ability to furrow and space, plant and cover seeds, costly design, increased maintenance, or requires bending during the planting process. None of these patents disclose or suggest the present invention.
For the foregoing reasons, what is needed is a combination seed planter and garden tool that is inexpensive and easy to maintain that has the ability to alleviate the need for the gardener to bend during the planting process and can function as multiple garden tools allowing the gardener to use one tool to furrow as well as space, plant and cover seeds.